Rachel Elnaugh … not a dragon at all!

Guess where I was yesterday? I was at a Rachel Elnaugh Masterclass at the British Library, and it was fab! For anyone who doesn’t know, Rachel used to run Red Letter Days, the market-leading experiences brand that she started on a shoestring budget at the age of 24 and grew into a multi-million pound business. The business crashed in a big way in 2005 and was eventually bought by two of Rachel’s fellow enterpreneurs on ‘Dragons’ Den’, Peter Jones and Theo Paphitis. Since then, Rachel has concentrated on inspiring, motivating and helping small business owners and enterpreneurs … and yesterday, that included me!

I have to admit that one or two people were a bit sceptical when I told them where I was going. “How on earth can she offer business advice when she got it so badly wrong with Red Letter Days?” was a question I was asked a couple of times. But my gut instinct said that anyone who could start and grow a multi-million pound business from nothing, ensure its survival and survive public humiliation herself, all whilst raising a family of five children, was not only worthy of respect but would have plenty to offer me! I’m glad I trusted my instincts …

So what did we do on the day? Well, it was action-packed but relaxed, with lots of laughter and a great bunch of people, not to mention delicious teas from The London Tea Company and food from Leiths! I don’t want to give too much of the game away in case you decide to go on one, but amongst other things we looked at:

• clarifying what we want to achieve for our business and for our life
• describing and intensifying our brand
• defining our target customer (which involved lots of fun with magazines, scissors and Pritt sticks!)
• maximising profitability by developing new products for existing customers and new customers for existing products
• managing our own personal energy to make the most of life

I came away on a massive high and with some real food for thought, and had to spend the next hour in Starbucks with a very large cup of coffee to capture all my ideas in my notebook! In fact, I was so busy thinking that I got on the wrong train home!

A busy week …

Do you know, I could be out every night this week at one ‘Enterprise Week’ event or another! There’s all sorts going on, most of which looks really interesting.

Microsoft are holding an event called ‘Ideas that can change the world’ at their offices on Monday 13th November. Striding Out are organising a ‘Be more’ dinner for women in enterprise on Wednesday 14th, then an event called ‘The future face of social business’ on Thursday 15th, which is followed by an ‘Inspiring Entrepreneurs‘ ‘do’ at the British Library. All in all, it seems that the people organising Enterprise Week have done a great job this year. Just wish our nanny hadn’t changed her days because now I’ve got to find someone to look after the little ones on Thursday. I feel a grovelly call to my mum or mother-in-law coming on!

Am definitely contemplating signing up to the Striding Out network, but am slightly put off by the fact that I’d apparently now have to join Branching Out, which is for their older members (those in their thirties or beyond!). Boy does that make me feel old! I would obviously also have to have a makeover first, as most of their members look extremely glamorous. They obviously get a few minutes to themselves to paint their nails and put their mascara on, and I suspect their sleepless nights, if they have any, are for a very different reason to mine! But hey, I’ve been there, albeit a long time ago, and this is just a different ’season’ in my life. Late summer verging on autumn, I guess!